Rise of MMA Prompts TKD Schools to Start Teaching Better Classes



From my experience, and from my observations of others, the tendency in TKD has always been to water it down. Now I don’t think this is any one side that can be blamed or any school in particular even, however instead I believe it to be a collective phenomenon.
The problem did not start with the organizations: I can’t imagine a conversation in the board room at WTF headquarters where they were like, “I think we are getting too rough. Time to tone it down boys.” And if you have had the opportunity to spar against good WTF guys, they are kicking hard. And vies-versa, I don’t see a conversation of all the ITF schools going like this, “We can’t be teaching kids to hurt other kids with the moves from the Poomse, we should focus on just the sport.”
By the collective what I am identifying is that over time, everyone, students and parents of students included, moved away from the forms and focused on the sport. The argument seemed to become “who had the better sport style, ITF vs. WTF”.
Many years, or perhaps 4 decades of the conversation go by and here we are with a borderline unless sport. I played that sport for many years and where did it get me? That question is rhetorical, it got me nowhere. There was no money in it and the only way to make money in it was either to conform to the Olympic style or go to kick boxing. Kick boxing does not make you that much, unless your just the exception, and then what? Well if you were marketable for the Olympics then you could probably get some sponsorships and after it’s said and done funnel your clout to your school. Which leaves us with the only real way to make money in TKD, being the owner of a school. Now keep in mind I understand Billy Blanks and other exceptions have found money in TKD other ways but they are a very select few.

I bring this up because this is what we are up against now. The rise of MMA. If you fail to realize this or its significance then you are sadly going to wake up one day and wonder, “where did all my students go?”


American culture has become more and more desensitized to the idea of a violent sport and with that shifting of the pendulum I feel we need to hone back into what TKD is all about. It’s about the forms. I learned the Tuls, but have also studied the TaeGeuk, and PalGwe and I can tell you right now, TKD has some real good stuff to be teaching.

I read somewhere once, and I don’t know where, but if I find it I will post it for sure, that when asked, General Choi said that the moves were not to be limited to the instruction of the forms but instead by one’s own imagination. Now that’s me paraphrasing what I read, it was years ago, but the point I make is this; TKD forms, on both sides of the fence, have very good moves and are very diverse. If instructors start influencing the forms for their defensive purposes instead of how to win a trophy in a forms tournament, then maybe the rise of MMA will work to our advantage. 

I have taught many types of classes and each one had specific goals. Some were geared towards fitness, some self-defense, some sparing, some correction of forms, but the main thing was everything I taught I was able to pull from a form. 

There once was a preacher who bought a dumpy warehouse. He then took a bandit sign and wrote “church Sunday 11:00am, bring your own chair”, on it and nailed it in the median across the street. That Sunday 6 people showed up. He kept the sign out there and told everyone that if they like the church then tell at least one person to come next week.

The next week came and sure enough the 6 from the previous week brought 6 more and the sign drew in 6 more. After that Sunday every weekend his congregation grew double in size for a whole year. Eventually the fire marshal came and kicked everyone out and shut the place down because he had too many people and no permit. (Although my number a probably wrong, this is based on a true story)
The local news caught wind of this and when they asked him how he got so many people to come, he laughed and answered, “I don’t know, for the whole year I preached every sermon out of the book of Deuteronomy.”

If you have never familiarized yourself with that book, it’s kind of boring to most people.  But he was able to take the truth out of it and apply it in so many ways that he managed to captivate everyone’s attention.  That man was Rob Bell.

The reason I say this is simply put, you can take tuls like Dan-Gun or Do-san and create classes out of them that are capable of spanning a year at least. Not only is this the best way to teach what TKD is about but, it’s also pretty easy. All it takes is a little forethought and a pinch of imagination. 

I taught many classes like this, where I would take a move that is found I a form and break that move down as many ways as possible. This method I found would not be accomplish-able in one hour, so I would have to move it over to the next class, and like rollover minutes, the classes kept including move break downs from the Tul.

I hope you can catch my drift, and that although I enjoy tournament style sparing, I firmly believe TKD schools need to step up their game quickly. The instruction in TKD schools should be at a point now where the public can again find it revolutionary. The time is now and MMA students will start coming to you. 

Peace.


TKD Block 52


What is Block 52?


Block 52 in MMA

I don’t know that I fully understand what they are explaining, but I find it all very interesting. The supplemental defensive strategies to it, while are typically applied to boxing, derived from martial arts. Intriguing system that I hope more DVDs come out on. This would be a great tool in the pocket of any TKD instructor. I typically don’t like supplementing things to TKD, as I feel there is a pure form of TKD that is viscous enough, but knowing that it derives from some traditional arts changes things. Makes me think that with traditional TKD sparing matches looking like kick boxing, this would be worth looking over. 

I will be reading up more on it and as I come across drills I will be posting them.

Peace.

Joe Rogan BJJ black belt



For those that don’t know I am a big Joe Rogan fan. I like his comedy and I think he makes a great fit for the UFC. Moreover the news of him receiving his BJJ black belt is exciting. 

I remember reading this article, in black belt magazine when it came out, it was great. I had the opportunity to meet him at a BJJ tournament in Houston once; he was super cool and very humble. I loved watching him show GSP how to make his back kicks faster, and I will never forget his stint on the Chappelle show. I listen to the Joe Rogan Pod Cast and just all around believe he is a true martial artist. 

That is huge for you man and if you stumble upon this site, congratulations Joe.









And Captain America is...


And Captain America is....Veteran trainer Frank Couzo, from Best of the Best.


Just kidding! it is Woo Sup Kim out of Winston-Salem. 

He hails from South Korea and was on the Korean Tigers Demonstration Team. They have some pretty cool stuff, if you don't know them, check them out. I searched for picture of Woo Sup Kim, other than the one on the article, but came up short. I’m sure there out there, if you find one post it, he is bound to have beautiful flying kicks.



peace.

But what there's more!

After posting this news, I was informed by an anonymous comment that this was not an appointment to position. Instead he apparently purchased this spot on the team, either way I'm not too invested in this story and don't by any means wish to discredit Woo Sup Kim, as I don't know him, and find it hard to locate any picture of him doing cool flying kicks. I suppose it's more of an Honorary title/ fundraiser. Below is a quote from the article I sourced.

"Woo Sup Kim, the owner of Tiger Kim's World Class Tae Kwon Do, based in Winston-Salem, said in a news release today that he has been named captain of the U.S. Olympics Taekwondo team."

here is a PDF link that the Anonymous commnter posted.

www2.teamusa.org/~/media/USA_Taekwondo/Documents/Board%20of%20Directors/Board%20Reports/2012%20June%2022%20Board%20Report.pdf

Informal, yet I saw no direct reference to Woo Sup Kim, maybe that was the point.



For anyone that wants to clarify what they believe might be a dis-truth on this blog, I thank you for reading and partaking, and actually adding to the conversation.

Now with all that being said, when I speak of the "truth" in TKD I am not referencing the many forms of politicism in TKD as a modern sport. I have a general interest in the sport, as I sparred ITF, and WTF styles for years. I like to keep up with what is gong on, if I come a cross an article I find interesting I will post it. To set the record straight though, the "Truth" is the Patterns, the Tuls, the Pawlge of Taeguks, Hyungs or what ever you want to call them. I lean towards the belief that forms must be broken down and understood on the highest level atainable for each practioner. The art is in the forms and I speak of implamenting the moves from the forms into the structor of class work.
That is my main focus in TKD.

Thanks to all my readers.

peace. 



TaeKwonDo or Karate Low Block


I had a dream. One that re-occurred a couple of times in different situations, but the outcome was the same. I was in a sword fight, a real sword fight. If you have ever studied lucid dreaming, it will benefit you to know I was in and out of sleep that night. For those who have never read into the subject, the more complete REM cycles that you interrupt the more lucid the next dream will be. They become more realistic and more manipulated by your consciousness. Any ways they were vivid to say the least. In all three dreams I was attacked unexpectedly by an assailant with a sword and I also had a sword handy, and would fight someone to the death. 

In these dreams I learned some things; one, sword fights are extremely scary and your adrenalin goes through the roof. Two that sword fights are not very long, someone dies pretty quick, unlike in the movies. And three, I never want to be in a real, fight to the death sword fight, because I did not know how to sword fight. These dreams lead me to join fencing and now I am much more prepared. On a quick tangent, before I turn back to my topic I will say this; if you, or you know someone that is good with a sword, they might actually not know the first thing about sword fighting. I was really good at “sword play” but learned quickly in fencing that I was nothing but novice. 

Anyways, so I guess all the “sword play” I did during that time made my subconscious question my ability in a real sword fight and those thoughts manifested themselves in my dream. Last night I had a similar dream.  This time it was about the low block. I guess the teachings I see don’t convince me. I question what I have been taught on its application. I feel as though it’s an extremely effective move.
This was how I was taught it: Below is a video of me using it in a tournament. It was used to block the round house kick, or diagonal kick, but that was merely a TKD sport application. (I edited this quickly, don’t be too critical) This was only used in taekwondo sparring. 

Outside of the sport it never was, expanded on other than blocking something coming at your mid-section or your groin. 

My problem with this is that I have found many uses for it, and in my dream last night; I was fighting an Asian guy in a basement of a parking garage. We were by the elevator and the stairs, which I was coming around, there he was. Dimly lit by the endless rows of florescent lights that hanged, suspended from the ceiling, his face shined a strange familiarity. He was casually walking from around a car, as though he just parked. The stairwell was adjacent to the elevator and was kept in a glass enclosure with an electronic sliding door. From 40 yards I could see him approaching, but I was not threatened at this point. He then brushed passed me, moving quickly, and quite closely might I add, never minding the open space that surrounded us. 

When people pass me like this red flags go off in my mind, “why” I asked myself, why did he pass so close when it was not necessary?  I turned to look back, expecting him to be at the stairwell by now, but instead he was right there, 3-4 feet from me and ready to attack. He only threw punches, and many kinds, and I only threw low blocks and outer forearm blocks. I have no idea why I thought this was the best form of defense but everything he threw I blocked. Punches to the mid-section I blocked with low mid-section outer forearm blocks and punches to the face and chest I blocked using the exact motion but at a different level. The first block was the most vivid in the dream because I barley blocked the stomach punch. It was fast and caught me off guard.
Then as I realized how easy his punches were to block I started blocking as though I was punching. The impact of my outer forearm slamming against his inner arms was taking their toll on him. Finally we battled back to the stair well where he delivered his last blow…ever. It was a wide right, hook punch, the kind you throw as a knockout punch. The hay-maker was intercepted by a vicious left rising block, chopping into his bicep then using the leverage I had I slammed him into the wall of the stairwell. I used my right outer forearm as a block, blocking his rebounding motion, to catch his neck and slam him against the concrete wall. It was a crushing blow that left him for dead, and also one I hope I never have to throw in real life. 

I killed him with a block? Yeah I guess I did. Although I don’t like having violent dreams, as they are a sign of outward environmental struggles mixed with subconscious internal, pulling thoughts, it sure was helpful in me understanding the low block. 


I have also questioned the sport teachings based on the fact that TKD was assembled during foreign occupations, to some degree, and surrounded by war. If they were at war, then first I would look to what era it was. The 50’s, so yes they had guns. On the battle field they more than likely applied some of these techniques to rifle use.
Again, I dwell on ground fighting and have noticed the outer forearm block is really handy there too. So I would not listen to just one instruction on this move, I would not instruct someone to limit the low block to simply the hand full of scenarios that exist in the forms. Instead you should take the technique from the form, extract it from the application, and apply it to as much as you can. You will find that if you practice the forms as such they become much more reviling as a teaching and training tool.

Peace.

Who is Tim Larkin?


Tim Larkin is pretty much one of the baddest men on the planet right now, in the martial arts world at least. If you have not been following this story I will give you a short back story. Tim was with SCARS an acronym for Special Combat Aggressive Reaction System. A system run by Jerry Peterson that was originally presented to military officials and law enforcement training programs. I can’t speak to how far they have gotten in with the government or other governments for that matter, but I can say that, like TKD is to Korea SCARS wanted to be for the USA.
Tim defected for whatever reason and went on the road teaching what he thought was a more direct way to defend yourself. There is some debated about Peterson and Larkin having a falling out but who knows. All I know as an internet bystander is now Tim has quite the story going on right now. 

It all started here;
What he wanted to do:

Then he got banned from entering the UK:


Tim Larkin’s response to the UK:

If you  don’t know the UK has been on a banning streak these last few years, as to who can inter their country, but with Tim on has to ask a question. What are you afraid of? Why is he a threat to your country? If he was going there to train your military, wouldn’t you want your military to know how to kill someone in 4 moves? And if it’s not being taught to the military, for whatever reason, and it was just seminars then why are you afraid of the public having this kind of knowledge. I’m sure the UK has civilians that already know and teach stuff like this, why make it sensational? With a statehood you always will be left wondering, what they were thinking, but I’m sure they had a reason. With that answer being unbenounced to the public we have no choice but to wonder.
I have followed this story on http://www.bullshido.net/ since they started to talk about it and thought it would be interesting to pass along.

Thanks for reading.
Peace.



BOA Wants changes to the selection process; Andy Hunt



One can read this article and believe it is of hopeful tone, I however am a skeptic. What exactly does Andy Hunt mean with his comments here? For an ITF Hybrid guy, I think that sounds hopeful for more style to excel in the Olympic contest, but this is just Great Brittan, this has nothing to do, and may have no impact on the AAU’s selection process in the US. So hopefully he has more clout than I think he does, and ends up making the selection process in GB better but for everyone else, I think it will stay the same.


peace.

The Saga of Aaron Cook; Conclusion


So now it ends, a TKD insider brought up from nothing, an invention destined for glory. That’s all until he turns and bites the master’s hand. Politics in the sport at their zenith. He made someone mad because he went off to privately train and they snubbed him, just like that! Well that’s modern TKD for ya’.
Please read and decide for yourself how you feel.

Here is Aaron Cook vs. Steven Lopez, watch Lopez take it right in the nuts @ 1:32 into the fight. 



Peace.

TruthIn TKD is can now be read in 60 languages

I have added the Google Translator for international viewers. Please share the good news, my senseless ranting on TaeKownDo can now be read in 60 languages!!!

La-Just couldn't cut it...



“On August 27, 2011, after many twist and turns, The World Taekwondo Federation terminated the contract that certified LaJust as a recognized brand by the WTF. Therefore, the Daedo PSS remains as the only official system.”

This just goes to show that big business is in everything. At the end of the day TKD is still about the bottom line. I don’t have a school; I have a school of thought. I was raised by some amazing martial artist and a mind that roamed free. In my martial arts journey I have done TKD, Karate, kick boxing, BJJ, misc. militant style trainings e.g. Krav Maga, Wing Chung, boxing and fencing. I’m not taking into account the hundreds of videos I have watched on all sorts of martial arts.

At the end of the day, all I ever noticed was that it did not matter, bills had to be paid. Rent was key at the TKD school, it was fundraiser this and DIY that, the boxing gym was the most interesting…and questionable. I don’t ascribe to that style of thought though; I really just love the training aspect. The philosophy and the theory, the discussions of a culture’s history and the ever so over flowing cup of opinions I possess.

It’s hard for me to harp on the WTF for switching, and being completely political, when the ITF has behaved in the same fashion since I have been a part of it. TKD, like anything else, is really political and extremely competitive, and not just on the mat. The financial side of things is sometimes more brutal than the kicks to the face. Just look at the way the UFC has gobbled up their competition and the way ITF split into three. It’s all just a perpetual juxtapose of position and political posturing for power, but it’s also what keeps TKD in the limelight. One more thing to talk about I guess.

Out with the old and in with the new, fencing has already seen this shift. Money in the end wins on the global stage, and in this case Daedo was, for the money, willing to do a better job. Time will tell if the WTF made the right decision until then keep kicking, because that’s all that matters.


Old: http://www.lajustsports.com/default.aspx

New: http://www.daedo.com/shop02/skin/shop.php


Peace.


What is ATA and SongAhm Taekwondo?

SongAhm was started by the Eternal Grand Master H.U. Lee. SongAhm TaeKwon-Do is what the ATA formed out of, originally based out of the Chahng-hun style, but was modified to envelop other artistic opinions he held. The SongAhm style seemingly maintains respect for the ITF and General Choi, but has added some teaching ideas to his curriculum. I never know what ATA was, and thinking back, the ATA School in the town I grew up in was pretty weak, but now that I learn more about it the more I respect it.

Any school can be weak, and for multiple reasons, that does not have to be a reflection of the system they represent. They keep a lot of the forms found in ITF and they, arguably, put more emphasis on the traditional aspects of the art but I do have one rub.

They do the same thing ITF is known for doing. They try to establish themselves as the best way, in TKD, and they seclude their art from the rest of TKD. I know you can argue that point but if the ITF is broken into three organizations, then the ICTF spins off and forms their own thing, ATA has existed for decades and many other forms of Korean arts influence similar aspects of the arts, then why are they not unifying. Of course I might just not know of some organization that exists out there, but from what I can tell they have enough groups to hold open tournaments a scale of grandeur.

If these organizations could unify for a beach side national “open” every two or five years, then they could all compete in local tournaments that would get really competitive. If it all fed into the national open, then they would all be able to unify the whole other side of the art. I think that would be really effective and simple, you just take the head of each institution and put them as the board members. Then they all assume one task and appoint someone from their organization to delegate the function accordingly and then they split the pot evenly and appropriate the funds generated where they feel they are best suited. I could be an amazing joint venture that could replace American Kick Boxing and could help fighters and trainers feed into the MMA system as well.

I am not an expert on this but I do feel ATA could do more, their system seems good and they promote themselves well, I want to make it clear that I respect them. However with the strands of General Choi’s ropes all divided, it’s no wonder the AAU is all up in the TKD scene. We, of like minds, should look past the small discrepancies and move toward a format that is flexible and versatile, as that the traditional style might last..

I think I’m ranting now so I will stop but if we got the AAU out of it and got the state’s boxing commissions into it I believe TKD would grow by leaps and bounds. WTF and the AAU are getting along great, and WTF is spreading TKD in a rapid and tremendous fashion, time is coming where we should to, but in a more Chahng-hun style.

Just my peace.

If you know more,  minding the fact that I summarized what it is, please let me know. I would be interested in know anything about it really.

Links; These were the links that I found that explained what ATA is to me. Very good links to read, intresting history and Master J. Phillip Wargo kinda scares the crap out of me.





Pacquiao; From the Horse's Mouth

http://msn.foxsports.com/boxing/story/manny-pacquiao-ill-have-another-boxing-horse-racing-become-relics-061212


Joe Rogan, perhaps, has been one of the most out spoken on topics like this but here it is. Straight from the horse's mouth, "were not morons, all of us". What more can be said, but decisions like this one are the end of boxing as we know it. Pacquiao won that fight and unless boxing wakes up they have a similar problem that TKD has; as they stand, they are dying.

Boxing could have a come back and take ticket and PPV sales away from MMA all over again, but they long ago stopped giving the fans what they want, in this case it's Mayweather vs. Pacquiao. That fight may never happen now, and boxing is again building it's own pine box.

TKD parallels this same situation, Albee it in a different manor, but a self made pine box non the less. If TKD does not wake up and give the people what they want then they too are going to be victims of Dana White and his brilliant business strategies. Giving the people what they want.

The main difference in TKD is that it's not really about what the "people" want. The people involved have what they want, in order to expand TKD we are going to have to give the bystanders what they want, and that's real fighting. Not what is out there today in the TKD sport as we see it.

TKD has to be profitable for the fighters, and not just the top three in each country that competes in the Olympics, but in an integration format. Any good TKD kicker, or master instructor could probably join up with a MMA camp and start, for money, coaching kicking drills for the fighters. They may have to take on more than one fighter to make ends meet, because the fights in MMA are not quite paying like boxing, but they teach multiple students anyways. TKD needs to step up and higher boxing coaches at their schools, then transition TKD into kick boxing, again some money there for sure.

Boxing is like horse racing, dying, but TKD has something it can learn from all of this. Boxing would not be dying if MMA and the UFC were not doing things right. So let the lesson be learned and stop living in a box, a pine box waiting to be buried, and resurrect the truth in TKD. The amazing kicking, the fantastic hand strikes, the shear power and understanding of timing and angles. The forms and patterns, the Tuls, which teach a system of total elimination of opponent, we need to embrace what TKD is about and not fall victim to the struggles that boxing is facing, which is an ever growing interest and understanding of true martial arts.

Peace.

Origination of Power Broken Down as Extension of Fist


I have a firm belief that in TKD you should teach the elbow strike before you teach the punch and the knee strike before you teach the kicks. However, because I always taught for other people, I adhered to their systems. I never started in class with those moves, at least not at white belt, but in my private lessons I did. 

When I left my school, to which I still remain loyal, I started teaching private students out of my garage or at a public park. The first upper body strike I would teach was the elbow and before we moved onto kicks I taught the knee strike. My reasoning was simple; it was all about the origination of power

A proper punch’s power is generated from the stability of one’s grounding to the present surface plus the rotation of the hip plus the acceleration of the arm, this will equal the amount of force on contact by the fist. Now when technique is applied to the punch you can break this down even further; explaining that the hips rotate, the arm is released from the chamber and the most applicable direction for the guided fist is followed, with conviction and commitment. Eventually at a higher level, you divulge to the student the concept of clockwork, with in the body movement, and that the body must move in unison. They can’t always break the movement down step by step, but eventually they would merge the pattern into one fluid motion and have a punch formed from it. 

However, I always found that instructors were coming up with kids that had pretty weak looking punching skills. So I broke it down like this; you are standing on the ground. In this moment you are nothing more than an inanimate protrusion from the ground in which you stand on. In order to create power a motion must occur, for this purpose the motion is you’re feet grasping the solid surface and turning the hips. The rotation of the body is what is going to propel the upper body; this motion is then coupled by the positioning of the arm. For this explanation, being from a chambered position, your upper body transfers that motion to the shoulder then to the elbow, the acceleration from releasing the chambered upper forearm is…STOP!!! 

That is exactly where I would stop. Just when they would think they were going to learn how to punch I would identify to them the extension of the hip as being the elbow. (I really believe it’s the shoulder and have had difficulty teaching the punch with particular students, so I started them even further back at how to shoulder shrug someone.) 

The elbow for all intents and purposes is the first extension of power. So why would you not teach the elbow first I asked myself, and from that day on I did. This proved to be a wise move because by the time we were punching the body movement of each student was so correctly ingrained into them that their punches rolled out naturally. Ground, to hip, to shoulder, to elbow, to fist. (Or any hand strike that requires that much force) but it was through this break down that I was able to ease off of the, later explaining of clockwork and the body’s movement in unison. I did not have to, they were doing it naturally because I stopped at the first extension of power. 

Kick equation works the same way; Ground, to hip to knee position to foot. Again, knee would come first so that was what I broke down first. (Obvious kicks will object to this notion, but that should be self-explanatory) 

Now to venture even further I feel I must explain some of my background. First was TKD, I fought in TKD style tournaments for years, ITF and WTF style. Then I moved into kickboxing fighting, where I quickly learned I did not know how to box. I learned boxing in a 4 month training program, just to understand the basic ideas, which really taught me that I already had great punching skills, just did not know how to use them. But then I progressed to fencing, sure there were other things in between there, but they don’t apply to this article so I will exclude them. It was at this point, fencing, that I learned that the sword was merely an extension of the hand. I was a natural to fencing for more than one reason, but the main reason was because I knew how to use my hands in combat. TKD taught me distance concepts and angles, and boxing taught me how to be tricky with my hand skills. 

I still fence a little, love it, but for the most part it just got me thinking even further. The sword was brought to Korea during the Paekchedynasty, and the first type of sword on record was the ring pommel sword. Swords were introduced to the Koreans through trade with Japan just as the gun was introduced to Japan by the US. Where exactly does that leave us?
This leaves us at the most recent extension of the hand being the gun, or at least for personal defense, in the extension of power timeline. Before there were swords, there were sticks, the sticks were sharpened and then for some modifications occurred that altered the stick into a new weapon. I.e., the Nunchaku, three dimensional staff, the bow staff… But now we are at the gun.
My TKD system that I grew up in introduced a new ancient weapon at every stage of black belt but they never introduced the gun. This makes since, as most students are juvenile, but what about for the adults that are old enough for a hand gun license, or the 18 year olds that can own a rifle. (Based on Texas law) I’m sure at this point in the article I have taken a turn drastically for the worst. Most readers are going to argue my points here, I’m sure, but that argument just reminds me of the movie 3 ninjas. “Real Ninjas don’t use guns”, to heck they don’t, maybe back then, when they did not have guns, but now we have a further extension of power and I feel as though it should be taught. Modern day Ninjas, or assassins, use some pretty high tech guns actually, with silencers. They also use long range rifles and in some cases even missiles and things we can’t, and shouldn’t attempt to purchase. 

I will leave the thought at this; first teach the extension of power from its start to its finish, not the other way around. I promise you a better yielded crop of students, and secondly get it out of your mind that the only weapons we should embrace are the ancient ones. The art of TaeKwonDo is not really a weapons based art anyways it’s for hand to hand combat, or arguably hand to assailant’s weapon combat.

Just as you would not teach a student to misuse a sword or a bow staff, you would never imply that they learn the improper ways to use a hand gun. You don’t have to even teach them how to use these; you can just explain the concept and let them decide, as adults, if they want to learn they will. At this point they can get a CHL or take a shooting lesson. I still find bow shooting fun and not just because of Burt Reynolds.  And by no means would I ever condone sensuously using these things, but if someone comes breaking into your student’s home, or family’s home what’s more important, that they used what you taught them or that they survived?

Everything we do requires prudence and discernment, but what skill is more acceptable, telling the Judge that you shot the intruder or that you sliced their knees off with a sword and let them bleed to death or perhaps decapitated them? One sounds crazy the other sounds reasonable, you figure out which one that is.

Moreover I must conclude with this; I hope the situation never arises, or you never put yourself in the place where anything discussed in the above article is necessary.

Go in peace.

Judges are half the battle



This turn out, in my opinion, is so that Bradley can hold on to the title and then fight Mayweather, who will beat him and silence the decenters as to who would have won in a mayweather vs pacquiao fight. 

I might be going overboard but when every columnist on the web is saying Pacquiao won that fight, guess what, Pacquiao should have won that fight. Aside from the suspicion that it was rigged, the judges are half the fight. Being from an ITF camp I learned this early on. Anyone that has had to apply a hybrid form to their fighting style knows that, although you feel dumb yelling, keeeyyyaaaaah!!!! On ever kick you land to the stomach, it makes all the difference in the world to the judges. 

I hope they rematch and Pacquiao get to redeem this situation. Or I hope Bradley clearly beats Manny, but until then boxing is going to lose more and more viewers. And for anyone that thinks it’s not a dying sport just look at the UFC. The heavyweight champion in the UFC right now is all boxing. He is beating people with boxing and more and more boxing fans are going to migrate their attention to facts like that and viewership will shift more than it already has.

Peace.



More on Canada's TKD Gold aspersions.

More on Canada's TKD Gold aspersions. 

http://www.mrtimes.com/sports/Taekwondo+Golden+girl+takes+Olympics/5711509/story.html


After reading about Ivett Gonda I learned about the clothing line that she, I guess, has some sort of sponsorship agreement with. IDK, but the clothing looks great for TKD, martial arts, yoga or just being comfortable in general.



check it out;
http://us.webstore.mpgsport.com/default.aspx

Punching Bag of Preference Poll


 Poll question:

Wave master makes great products, including hanging bags, so I am not being partial towards any specific company here, rather Everlast or Century but I feel their was nothing better than the way a canvas bag would bloody the knuckles.





Which do you prefer, the old school heavy hanging bag or the new school wave master type of free standing bags?
Hanging Heavy Bag
Free Standing Bag
Other
Please Specify:
Create your own poll with LearnMyself



So I want to know old school heavy hanging bag or wave master style free standing bag, which are you more pro? Apparently the Vaticanis pro-heavy bag…soo old school. 


Nun kicks hanging heavy bag;








Peace.